Open Jaw: Where readers write back

Grotty no more

Great article. Nice to see someone not simply parroting the same sun and sangria stories about the Canary Islands. Lanzarote will never be Tuscany, but then Tuscany doesn't have lava tubes, the best snorkelling in Europe, and wine grown on active volcanoes.

Alex Bramwell

Everybody's going surfing except ...

... You omitted Fuerteventura in the Canaries, one of the leading surfing, wind surfing and kite surfing meccas of the world, within a four-hour flight from most European airports.

Chris Ward

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Once upon a childish time my parents watched nonchalantly as I scaled Pembroke's cliffs to marvel at huge ammonite casts down below into which I could curl my 10-year-old torso. I remember the event as formative and awe-inspiring.

Steve Halliday

Scotland's A-road stars

I can't believe that none of your other readers put forward a single suggestion from Scotland for Britain's best A-road. May I suggest the A82, Stirling to Inverness route, particularly the section over Rannoch Moor and down through Glen Coe? This can go from being beautiful in sunshine to bleak and atmospheric in rain, often all in the same weekend.

Robin McSporran

For fantastic scenery, mountains, rivers, lochs and coast, I doubt that anything in the British Isles can match the sequence of A-roads connecting Ullapool and Durness. The A835, A837, A894 and A838 go along Loch Assynt, across the delectable Kylesku Bridge and up the western side of the Highlands past Rhiconich to Durness. As pleasant as Durness might be, this is one occasion when the journey is definitely better than arriving. Side trips to Lochinver and Kinlochbervie add to the experience. And, even better, you can do the journey on a little bus and let someone else do the driving!

Tom Campbell

My suggestion is the A939. It starts in the seaside town of Nairn with its golf courses and beaches then crosses Dava Moor to Grantown-on-Spey with its celebrated salmon fishing, before climbing to the Cairngorms National Park at the Lecht Ski Centre. It then descends to Ballater near Balmoral on Royal Deeside. It is a wonderfully scenic yet quiet road providing golf, fishing, skiing, royalty, a climb of 2,000ft plus the oft-reported stretch between Cock Bridge and Tomintoul, always the first road to be closed when snow falls. A won- derful road, come and try it.

Mac Baldwin